Back in 2013, I was in my final year at UP. I started the second semester with 100 pages of novel – carefully workshopped pieces over the course of six years of creative writing classes. But I also had a day job. Thanks to exciting work, I sort of forgot that I had a thesis until the month it was due. So I took a two week leave from work at the start of April to submit my thesis by April 16.
I had outlines for chapters, ideas of how things would go, and years of research on Philippine folklore from the crumbling books in the Filipiniana section of the Main Library. I basically crammed converting that preparation into chapters of a novel into the next two weeks.
For two weeks, I did not see people outside of my condo guards and the ladies who ran the pares mami resto beside my condo. I’d sleep for five hours, wake up, and hand-write a chapter. Then I’d take what I’d written and bring it to the resto, have a 3-in-1 coffee and maybe a bowl of beef mami or a silog meal, all while typing up what I’d written – that was my first line of editing what I had written. When I was done with that, I’d tinker with the text until my netbook ran out of batteries. Then I’d return home and charge it (the resto didn’t have a socket for customers), and print out what I’d written for a second line of editing. When I finished that, it was on to the next chapter, and so on and so on, with minimal social media chatting with friends (except to check on dialogue in Filipino, which I surprisingly got right for a chapter).
My bed was my desk and my printer was just barely off the floor and it was a slow printer at that, the sort to only print 6 pages in a minute. As April 16 neared, I realized I needed to print what I had, even if it wasn’t complete yet. I started printing on April 14, while I went about writing up the last chapters and epilogue (and prologue) of what would be my 223 page thesis. (23 pages were for comparing previously written Philippine science fiction novels…)
I finished the ending on the morning of April 16, printed the last chapter, and rushed to campus to have my thesis bound and submit on the same day, in multiple copies as required.
Needless to say, my thesis advisor was less than thrilled. He saw my thesis a total of two times: once, in December, when I showed him the first hundred pages, and on the day it was due, with the second hundred pages complete. I did not get high marks, but I passed and graduated with my batch. Thank goodness for that, at least.
The crammed nature of the novel’s ending meant I was dissatisfied with it for years. So now, I prepare to re-write it as I add another hundred pages to the novel this year. I’m at 247 pages. I know I’ll get there.
30 May 2020